My nose woke me up as it seems to do once or twice a week. Something up there is really determined to make up for traffic. Sometimes I wonder why we bothered moving if I'm just destined to get woken up anyway. Maybe we should have stayed in the bigger place with better health care and more options for poor people. Or maybe we should have just gone to New Mexico. I had no idea this would happen, but I should have known. I really should have. It's just that when you're in a place that renders your allergies mostly dormant, you forget that you still do have them.

It deeply frustrates me that we have neither the money nor the energy to move. He could physically handle it, but I couldn’t. I'm not sure why sleep disturbances have such a profound effect on me, but they do. One side of my nose was clogged up, and elevating myself on two pillows didn’t help, as they’re both pretty thin. It was quite a while before I could get back to sleep. I was still exhausted when I got up and ended up taking a long nap, much to my surprise. I'm still really out of it, thanks to the extra antihistamines I took and broken-up sleep.

Long gone are the days when, back when I was a smoker and had asthma attacks waking me up, I would deal with it, go back to sleep, and then be fine when I got up. If I'm up for more than a few minutes, I'm automatically screwed the next day. But despite my exhaustion, I managed to get some things done around here. I folded the laundry, changed sheets, and now I'm cooking.

Got that burgundy-colored shampoo dye I ordered, but I'll try it when I have a little more energy. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts and if it's hard on my hair or not. Anyway, we ordered a 6-inch wedge pillow to better elevate me for when my nose is stuffy. My 10-inch one is too high. It was good for when I had the norovirus or my tooth pulled or if I'm playing around on the phone in bed, but it's too high for regular sleeping.

It's just a matter of whether or not I'm going to have to give up stomach sleeping or my body pillow. I'd have to give up the body pillow if I decided to keep the wedge pillow by my regular pillow and just roll onto it when my nose was stuffy because rolling over the body pillow would be a pain in the ass. I'd have to give up stomach sleeping if I chose to sleep on the wedge pillow all the time, no matter what. I won't decide on a final setup until I get the thing, but this is the only way I can think of to stop this shit.

I just feel totally powerless and hopeless! I can't have shots, and I can't leave the state, yet OTC stuff isn't cutting it, so what am I to do? This is the only thing I can think of. AI said it only takes six to eight inches of elevation, and the two pillows I was using were only giving me three or four inches, if even that.

I'm also stressed out knowing the honker’s going to arrive soon, then have new neighbors that may or may not be quiet, and I'm really, really worried that I'm not going to get the nose surgery and the mouth guard I need. This country is so fucked up.

Anyway, I'm baking a yellow potato and a piece of cod, which I’ll have with some sweet peas. I really need to try to get a handle on my weight and get a few pounds off. I'm trying to put together a plan that’s lower in calories but still provides enough nutrients without leaving me feeling like I haven't eaten in years.

Hurricane Melissa, which is pummeling Jamaica and Haiti now, is going to bring a cold spell to Florida in a few days.

I LOVE how FicFan refused to give in to Russia’s bigotry, pressuring them to remove LGBT content. They said that despite threats, they refused to compromise and that to them, writing is about freedom of expression and community, and giving in would have meant betraying everything they’d built. 

Good for them! Now, why the hell can’t everyone be like this and stand up to the craziness? Like I said, when you don’t fight back, you continue to be a victim, and the crazy people will just get crazier. 

No law anywhere would ever get me to stop doing what’s right. There’s what’s right, and then there’s what the law says, and sadly, sometimes there’s a big difference between the two. I'm glad Fic decided to do the right thing. I could have let the freeloaders stop me from writing forever, and I almost did just that, but once the state released me, I was through being their victim and letting them control me.

I hate hearing about GYNs who run to other states after they ban abortion in their own state. That's letting your patients down and taking the cowardly way out. Instead, they should stick around and treat their patients as they were sworn to do, rather than become part of the problem.